Rosalia Chladek

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Bust of Chladek in the Laxenburg Museum

Rosalia Chladek (born May 21, 1905 in Brno ; † July 3, 1995 in Vienna ) was a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher.

Rosalia Chladek is one of the most important pioneers of free dance in Europe in the 20th century (expressive dance). Very early on, she researched the causes and relationships of movement. From this her dance technique, internationally recognized in professional circles under the term Chladek system, developed .

life and work

Vienna Central Cemetery - honorary grave of Rosalia Chladek

In her youth Rosalie Chladek enjoyed a rhythmic-musical education at Margarete Kallab's school in Brno from 1918 to 21 . She then studied for three years at the School for Rhythm, Music and Physical Education in Hellerau near Dresden, the former educational institution of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze . She completed this training with a teaching diploma for physical education. In 1922 she became a member of the Kratina dance group at the Hellerau school. A year later, Chladek created several roles at the Hellerau Festival in Valeria Kratina's “ The Wood-Carved Prince ” and at the Vienna Modern Music Festival in Kratina's “Man and His Longing”. The following year the dancer made her solo debut in Dresden . From 1924 to 1928 she taught at the Hellerau school and, after the school moved to Austria in 1925, at the Hellerau-Laxenburg school near Vienna. In 1926 she acquired the "Old Style Suite". In the following year she performed alone in Vienna for the first time. In 1928 she received an invitation to the 2nd German Dancer Congress in Essen and made her debut in Berlin. Then Chladek was head of the training center for gymnastics and dance at the Basel Conservatory until 1930 and began to develop her own system of modern dance education. At the same time she led the dance group of the Basel Conservatory and worked as a choreographer at the Stadttheater Basel. She staged the pieces " The Story of the Soldier ", " Petruschka ", "Don Juan" and "Pulcinella". In 1930 the dancer took part with the Basel dance group at the 3rd German Dancer Congress in Munich. , in the “Rhythms Cycle” and the “Figures from Petrushka.” Rosalie Chladek was the artistic director of the Hellerau-Laxenburg dance group and the direction of gymnastic and dance training at the Hellerau-Laxenburg school until 1938. In 1931 she was active for the first time at the Wiener Festwochen, which had the motto “Festive Dance Suite.” In the years that followed, she received two prizes 2nd prize at the First International Competition for Artistic Dance in Warsaw, which was awarded for the first time in the category of choreography by movement choirs in Greek tragedies in the classics de. Furthermore, she took part in the Festival in Italy until 1952, and had to interrupt her participation due to the war. She also made guest appearances in Paris. In 1934 she danced the leading roles in "Marienleben" and "Jeanne d'Arc". In 1935, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Hellerau-Laxenburg School, the dancer developed the choreography for “La Danza”. A year later she played in “Escort of the Dead” and developed the “Mythological Suite”, which she started with “Narcissus”, “Pythia” and “Weapon Dance of Penthesilea”. "Daphne", "Agaue" (1946) and "Höfische Suite" were added later. Shortly thereafter, the dancer had other guest appearances in Paris and Rome. In addition, she was awarded the title of professor.

In 1938 she toured Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Poland (including Lodz) and the Netherlands as part of the "Archangel Suite". The following year she had a guest performance in Rome and another tour through Indonesia with Alexander von Swaine . In 1940 Chladek obtained her first opera direction with “Orpheus and Eurydike” at the Vienna State Opera, as well as her engagement as a choreographer and solo dancer at the Deutsche Tanzbühne in Berlin. After that, she headed modern dance training at the German Dance Masters in Berlin for two years.

1940-1952 Head of the training center for stage and teaching subject at the Vienna Conservatory
1943 "A romantic love fate - The Lady of the Camellias"
1944-1963 Choreographic activity at the Volkstheater, working with Gustav Manker ( The Farmer as Millionaire , The Spender , The Beautiful Helena )
1946-1954 Choreographer at the Burgtheater; For the first time spoken and danced poetry: "Echo-Gesänge"
1947 Choreographic design of " Jedermann " at the Salzburg Festival
1948 "Little Passion" in the academy theater. First guest teacher at the summer course of the Swiss Professional Association for Dance and Gymnastics (Rosalia Chladek directs guest and summer courses
henceforth in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland)
1949 On the occasion of the 3rd International Music Festival in the Wiener Konzerthaus: “The Four Temperaments”, “Pantea” and “ Peter and the Wolf ” (director: Gustav Manker )
1950 Guest performance in New York on the occasion of participation in the International Arts Program
1951-1953 Performances of the dance group Rosalia Chladek in Vienna a. a. with "From Morning to Midnight"; Tours through Italy, Germany and Switzerland
1952 Participation in the film "Symphonie Wien" (Director: Albert Quendler)
1952-1970 Head of the department for artistic dance at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna
1954 "Self-Portrait"; Choreography for “Orfeo” at the 6th Vienna International Music Festival; "Sancta Trinitas"
1956 "Les Petits Riens"
1957 Direction and choreography for “The Soldier's Story” in the academy theater and television
1959 "The Demon" and "Le Renard" in the academy theater and television; Direction and choreography for "Julius Caesar" at the Salzburg State Theater
Last appearance as a solo dancer in Vienna (Akademietheater)
1962-1977 Head of the university course "Modern dance education and dance pedagogy - Rosalia Chladek® system"
1967 Full university professor
1968 Last choreography: “Curriculum Aeternum” in the Akademietheater
1972 Founding of the "IGRC Internationale Gesellschaft Rosalia Chladek" and the "ARC Arbeitsgemeinschaften Rosalia Chladek", now active in Austria, Germany, Switzerland,
Italy and France; Introduction of part-time training in the Chladek® system
1980-1982 Guest performances by the dance group ARC in France and Switzerland
1985-1990 Reconstruction of the solo performances “Lucifer”, “Jeanne d'Arc”, “Lady of the Camellias”, “Michael”, “Intrade”, “Slavic Dance”, “Afro-American Poetry” and “Narcissus”; Performances and a. at the Vienna International Festivals "Tanz 88" and "Tanz 90" and at the Vienna State Opera
1987 At the International Dance Weeks Vienna, of which she was one of the teachers until 1995, in memoriam of colleague Alvin McDuffie, she once again dances the cotton picker from the 1951 “Afro-American Poetry”
1989 Jointly leading a workshop in Amsterdam with Kazuo Ohno
1993 Performance of reconstructions by the Dresden State Opera
1995 Died in Vienna on July 3rd

The Chladek dance system

Rosalia Chladek developed her dance technique in the 1930s, at a time when many dancers broke away from classical ballet in order to follow their own will to express themselves. However, they lacked a dance technique beyond ballet that was objective and independent of the teacher. Chladek was therefore looking for a technique with which the dancer's body, with all its possibilities, could serve as an instrument of expression. She was based on the two basic parameters within which we move: the physical laws (gravity, centrifugal, centripetal forces) and the anatomical features of the body (joints, muscles). Rosalia Chladek has succeeded in developing a logical system with clear terminology.

An important topic of the Chladek technique and not included in any other modern dance technique so consciously and differently is the change in tension in the body. It is an interplay of gravity and natural energy, a principle in which humans are actually permanently.

The dancer uses the conscious use of different body tension as a means of expression. Accordingly, this technique is not a technique that deals with certain shapes or positions, or even spectacular movements, but rather a technique in which the course of movement and the many shades in it determine the quality of the movement and expression. In order to achieve this functional and logical course of movement in the body, one works particularly intensively on the "permeability" of the body.

Awards and recognitions

literature

  • Gerda Alexander, Hans Groll: dancer, choreographer, pedagogue: Rosalia Chladek . ÖBV Pedagogical Publishing House, Vienna 1965, ISBN 3-215-11995-1
  • Andrea Amort : Free Dance in Interwar Vienna . In: Deborah Holmes, Lisa Silverman (Eds.): Interwar Vienna. Culture between Tradition and Modernity . Camden House, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-57113-420-2 , pp. 117-142.
  • Rosalia Chladek: From Hellerau near Dresden to Laxenburg near Vienna. Impressions from a former student, later teacher and employee . In: Gunhild Oberzaucher-Schüller (Ed.): Expression dance. A Central European movement of the first half of the 20th century . Florian Noetzel Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-7959-0609-1 , pp. 35-70.
  • Fritz Klingenbeck: The dancer Rosalia Chladek . Veen's Uitgevers, Amsterdam; Franz Leo & Comp., Vienna 1936.
  • Gunhild Oberzaucher-Schüller , Ingrid Giel: Rosalia Chladek - classic of moving expression . Kieser Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-935456-03-4
  • Ursula Pellaton: Rosalia Chladek . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 380.
  • René Radrizzani: Rosalia Chladek writings & interviews . Florian Noetzel Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-7959-0825-6
  • Televisfilm, Eva Stanzl: From my life - Rosalia Chladek: dancer - choreographer - pedagogue , a film by PIOTR SZALSZA, Vienna 1996

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Lodz w Ilustracji”, 27 III 1938, no 13, p. 3 (photo in a dance pose)
personal data
SURNAME Chladek, Rosalia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-Czech dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno
DATE OF DEATH 3rd July 1995
Place of death Vienna